Found a tournament that me and my friends decided to play in over the weekend. It's actually not over yet, we're 3-0 and the finals is this coming saturday. The tournament format is a bit interesting. Double elimination and the winner of the whole thing is the only team without 2 losses. The tournament is organized by 3 older filipino guys who play every saturday and sunday morning from 7am-12pm. The outdoor courts are actually quite nice, there are 4 full length courts with HS 3pt lines, the rims all have springs and the backboards are square. Flooring is like a standard outdoor tennis court.

6 teams for this summers tournament. The format went as followed-DAY 1: (one team will be eliminated on this day)
game A: 1 v 2
game B: 3 v 4
game C: winner of A v 5
game D: winner of B v 6
game E: loser of A v loser of C (elimination game)DAY 2: (3 teams will be eliminated on this day)
game F: loser of B v loser of D (elimination game)
game G: winner of C v winner of D
game H: winner of E v winner of F (elimination game)
game I: loser of G v winner of H (elimination game)DAY 3:
game J: winner of I v winner of G (double elimination)
game K: if necessary

It's a very unconventional/interesting format. 'King of the hill' style where winner keeps moving on, and the losers proceed to play each other to decide elimination, only to move on again to play the initial winner. Winners of games keep facing off until teams lose twice, eliminating them from the tournament.

Team previews (photos of teams coming soon)
So about 40-50 older filipinos play @ these courts every weekend, and they always invite me to bring my friends along. The tournament pretty much consists of their guys, adding a few outsiders into the mix. I brought my own team.

Red: A team of older guys, this is probably the poorest constructed team of the bunch. Notable player:
#1 on this team is their best player. He's a decent shooter, can get to the rim, has good midrange, and is great at drawing fouls. Unfortunately, on a team full of short players, he is only 5'11 and has to be their center (lol)

Blue: One of the better teams considering they lack serious height. They are loaded with shooters, including my favorite:
#0: Bryce - polished 3 pt shooter and a great finisher around the rim. considering he is in his late 30s this guy can play. Give him an inch of space, and it's in. Hits 4-5 3s at a time in regular pick up games.
#1: C Exconde - another polished 3pt shooter with great court vision and good IQ. lacking height and athleticism, but another smart oldy
#5: Josh - friend of mine that got picked up late along with his cousin that played HS ball for Eastern HS (Voorhees, NJ). very athletic with great handles and IQ, once again height is not there @ 5'7. His cousin @ 5'10 was quick with good midrange.

White: A very scrappy/dirty team, with decent athleticism. Their best player gave me 2 black eyes for 2 years straight, while he was on offense! Like I said this team had some athletic players on it so I expected them to go pretty far.
#9 Martinez - A very raw athlete. @ 5'11 he is very fast and explosive (can almost dunk i'd say a 32-34 inch vert?)
#8 Pacis - There best scorer and playmaker, @ 5'11 this is the guy that dealt me 2 black eyes with his 'Kobe' follow throughs
#29 - polished shooter/finisher, quite old in his 40s but is in great shape. Has a Ray Allen type body and is 5'11 and very lanky. Can shoot the 3 well.

Orange: This in my opinion looked like the team to beat. Built just like the gray team but with a much better PG.
#11 Nable - This kid is nasty. 17yo 5'9, lanky athletic, he is the starting varsity PG for Cherry Hill West HS, NJ. great handles, great IQ, deep range and a nice finisher, he was wowing the crowd in Day 1.
#0 Doc - A retired PBA player (Philippine Basketball Assoc), he's 6'4 with a good back to the basket game. He can shoot the 3, post up and is very good passing out the post. Only downside is that he is old, (did i say retired from pro ball?) and quite slow now.
#14 Zigon - Their other center, @ 6'1 he is in better shape and a little younger than Doc. Not much of a scorer though.
#35 - Another aged guy, gets away with so many shuffle steps when he pulls his 3s, but his 3s have been automatic everytime I see him play. If he can keep from traveling he could make teams pay for leaving him open.

Gray: A very solid, but old team. This team also packed some very good height, and their center is 6'4, 250 lbs and is quite mobile @ 35yo.
#32 Jimbo - Their star 6'4 center, this guy has been in all the leagues I play in around philly/delaware. He has a very solid back to the basket game from < 10ft, and can make free throws in the clutch. By far the best center in the whole tournament.
#11 Jingo - Their PG, a bit old but still very mobile and very smart for his age. He will be executing the offense and he works a nice in and out game with Jimbo.
# 3 Alphie - Their athletic guard. He has an OK shot, and decent handles.

Black: Time to talk about my team. Head and shoulders above all 5 other teams, we probably should not be allowed to play in the tournament But they wanted the challenge so we got the invite. The equalizer is that we didn't bring any Centers with us. We run with 2 guards, and 3 Fs and play at a blistering tempo (suns/warriors anyone?). We don't have a single weak link in this line up. Since it's my team I can preview every player. Our team ranges from 20 YO to 26 YO, so everyone is young.

#23 Myself 6' SF/PF 170lbs - My role is pretty much going to be floating around the Foul line looking to catch and shoot from 10-15ft. I will also be found diving from high post to low in the halfcourt, and finishing on fast breaks.
#24 - Our PG 5'10 - A polished guard that played for South Pasadena HS. Has a great 3 ball, midrange, and can get to the hoop at will. He will rarely score though as he orchestrates the offense.
#9 - Our SF 5'11 - Athletic freak, with a great 3pt shot. He killed it from the corner in Day 1, driving and finishing on 1-2-3 guys.
#8 - Our PG/SG 5'11 290lbs - He looks like a giant teddy bear, but he plays hard. Great handles, good IQ, and years of experience. Back in the day he tried out for the And1 tour and got the nickname Bodega? lol dunno y. Can shoot from deep.
#6 Our other PF 6'1 187 lbs - Played for West Catholic HS in PA, has a solid jumpshot and knows how to cut and get in the seams of zone Ds. Runs a great pick and roll, and can shoot from deep. Plays more like a guard, but his size in this evironment suits him @ the F.
#13 & #2 - Our scrappy players. These are our hustle guys that love to bang, play D, and get rebounds. Priceless off the bench.
#4 - Our 6th man, only 5'8 but can score in flurries. Probably the ultimate offensive player for us, can score in and out, can attack the rim and finish on guys 2x his size. great handles and moves. Good back to the basket game. His lack of size suits the 6th man role well to score off the bench.
#3 & #11 - Scrappy players like our other 2, but can actually score and handle the ball. Their physical D and midrange shooting have been useful in the past.

Pics and video clips soon to come. My GF recorded some clips from our 3rd game and took pics. Results for Day 1 and 2 coming soon.

Game 3: White vs Blue - White wins in OT 53-48
Bryce blew this game! In regulation Blue was up 42-40 and Bryce chucked up an ill-advised 3 with < 40 seconds left. There is no shot clock in this tournament.

Game 4: Black vs Orange - Black wins 48-40
#11 from Orange pulled a sick crossover on our #11 and pulled up right in front of the 3 midgame. It was nice, but we won anyway.
#23 (me) - 17pts
#9 - 10 pts
#4 - 8 pts

Game 5: Red vs Blue - Red wins 61-60
We left after our 2nd game so I didn't stay to see this one.

good call, i'm 6' . I need the perfect 2 step path to the hoop to dunk, and a lot of times i'll throw it off the back of the rim, so when we need a bucket and i have a clear path, better to just lay it up.

We were all pretty much hungover from last night for this game (9AM). This was all in the finals of the tournament. Personally, I don't know how this team got there because they were pretty bad. They made a lot of hard lucky shots. Everything we made came pretty easy. We beat this team by 20 something on Day 2, and in the finals only won by 4, and we were trailing all game cuz our bench was "sick". We all celebrated our chip the night before, lol